


Leverage

by MakingStarsShine



Category: The Flash (TV 2014)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-01-04
Updated: 2017-01-04
Packaged: 2018-09-14 15:48:09
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,081
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9190256
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MakingStarsShine/pseuds/MakingStarsShine
Summary: So this was a request made by @kyandrila for a Reverb story with the prompt “Fuck you” from the story starters list. So here it is, it got a little darker than I intended it to be, but whatever. Enjoy everyone!





	

You were furious. Every fiber of your being was burning with rage at the situation you currently found yourself in. Locked away in a glass box in Zoom’s cavernous lair, put on display like a prize, it made you so angry you felt that if your thought hard enough, you might be able to melt your way to freedom. Unfortunately your meta ability didn’t work like that, you had telepathy after all, not telekinesis; you couldn’t manipulate your prison with your mind, you could only think angry thoughts at it and your captor until one of them had a breakdown. Neither of which was going to happen however, because obviously you can’t hurt the feelings of glass, stone, or steel, and more importantly, entering a speedster’s mind was like trying to hop on a treadmill that was going full speed: It always ended painfully.

 

You grumbled to yourself, lounging dejectedly against one of the corners of your prison, trying your best to think of why Zoom was keeping you instead of just killing you like he usually did with metas who fought against him, but nothing really came to mind. The only reason your thought might be applicable was that he was keeping you alive for your powers, but it wasn’t a very good reason because it wasn’t as if he could force you to use your powers for him, you didn’t have anything he could use as leverage against you. Your family was all gone, you didn’t have friends because of your powers, nobody seemed t trust you when you could look inside their head on a whim. So keeping you alive seemed almost nonsensical the way you saw it, unless he just wanted to prolong your suffering, in which case he could be doing much worse than sticking you in a box to rot.

 

“Well fuck me ragged,” a voice sounded from behind you, echoing off the high stone walls softly as you felt your muscles tense, “I didn’t actually think he’d do it.”

 

You clenched your fists at your sides, gritting your teeth so hard your jaw hurt. This was it then, this was why he’d kept you alive, not to watch you wither away in a glass cage, but as a trophy; not his trophy, but Reverb’s.

 

There was a tapping sound behind your head, followed by a low throaty chuckle, “Hello gorgeous, did you miss me?” Reverb asked as you turned to glower at him, his face cracked open by a massive grin as he crouched down to your level. You decided then that you would have preferred for Zoom to kill you, anything to not have to endure this.

 

“How does someone miss a knife in their back?” you asked coldly, earning a laugh from him as he stood up.

 

“Come on now Y/N, baby…”he circled around to the other side of your cage, leaning against it as he peered down at you with hungry eyes, “we had fun together too, a little deception shouldn’t have erased those memories, I know I think about that time we had quite often, every night before bed in fact,” he gave you a salacious smile, licking his lips like you were some delectable treat he was getting ready to devour.

 

You stared back at him with indifference, crossing your arms over your chest, “Am I supposed to be creeped out that you think of me when you touch yourself, or find it hilarious that you think of me because you can’t get the real thing?” you asked sassily, “I’m a little confused here.”

 

“Ooh, low blow,” he chuckled, putting his hands over his pants mockingly, “but in all seriousness darling, I think you should be flattered, after all most men wouldn’t carry a flame for a bitch like you this long, but what can I say, I’m a sucker for pain.”

 

“In that case how about you let me out so I can break your fucking legs?” you asked him with an edged sweetness, “then you can jack yourself off to that too, and I won’t have to listen to your grandstanding anymore.”

 

“Patience pet,” he cooed softly, “you’ll be out soon enough.”

 

At that you felt a barest twinge of hope twist in your stomach, “What is that supposed to mean?” you asked, careful not to betray your feelings as you began rapidly planning what you could do to escape once you were out of your cage.

 

Reverb shrugged, “Well I can’t exactly keep you here,” he explained gesturing to the the rest of the cave, “Zoom’s got other uses for your little fish tank in mind, and besides, I like play with my toys in private, voyeurism just isn’t my thing.”

 

You wanted to throttle him at that, “Fuck you,” you spat indignantly, “I’m not an object you asshole.”

 

“Quite right,” he agreed with a little bow of his head, “my apologies darling, but it doesn’t change the fact that you do belong to me now.”

 

You snorted derisively, “I don’t belong to anyone darling, least of all you,” you leaned your head back, closing your eyes in an effort to block him out. If he were going to try to move you somewhere, you would have a better opportunity to escape, but it was hard to consider all of your options while he prattled on incessantly.

 

He sighed then, a deep weary sound “There was a time when you would have said the opposite,” he said quietly, folding his hands in front of him as he looked down at his feet, “have you really forgotten so easily?”

 

You opened your eyes to stare at him, your brows scrunching together as you regarded him with utter disbelief, “If I could forget it,” you explained slowly, pointedly, “I would. I would wipe it from my memory like washing a stain from my skin. Unfortunately for us both, the mind doesn’t work that way,”

 

He stared back at you, something like sadness or regret in his eyes as he nodded, “You would know how the mind works wouldn’t you, Y/N?” he put his finger against the glass and grimaced, “that is after all your gift, isn’t it? To know whats in other people’s minds?”

 

“No it’s not,” you answered him honestly, a familiar pain beginning to ache in your chest. You had the power to look into people’s minds, that was true enough, but you never did it without permission unless the circumstances called for it. Nobody ever seemed to believe you when you told them that, probably because they were people of weaker morals than you were, after all, why waste time asking permission to look inside someone’s head when they wouldn’t even know until it was done? Thats what had made it so painful to find out Reverb had been keeping secrets from you, way back when you two had been together.

 

He’d practically swept you off your feet when you first met, not only saving you from Zoom but teleporting you home. He’d been like a knight in shining armor, and after that he had come to visit you every day to make sure you were alright. It had been so long since anyone cared so much about you, that you welcomed his visits, welcomed his questions about your own power and how it worked, how far into someone’s mind you could go. For a time, you even believed you loved him, and he did his very best to keep you believing, with kisses that set your body on fire, and sweet words in your ear; you had all but given yourself to him, made to believe he loved you in return…but thats when you found out it had all been an act. He had been working for Zoom the whole time, tasked with gathering intel on useful assets, waiting for the order to turn you over to Zoom for his plans to take over the city. Reverb was the whole reason you’d started fighting, waging war against Zoom and his minions to hopefully save other metas from what had happened to you, or worse; but it had landed you in Zoom’s hands none the less.

 

“Did it ever occur to you that I didn’t want to lie?” Reverb asked, brining you out of your reverie.

 

You met his fierce questioning gaze with one of your own, leaning forward as you snapped back at him, “If you didn’t want to do it, then you should have left me alone in the first place!”

 

“Perhaps I should!” he shouted angrily, startling you with the sudden spark of emotion. He fumed as he stepped back from the glass, running a hand through his hair as he tried to regain composure, “when I saved you from Zoom that first night we met, I had no idea who you were, all I knew was that Zoom wanted me to get close to you, he said you could be useful in the long run, so I did as I was told,” he paced before you as though he was the one in the cage, a nervous energy radiating off of him in waved, “I got as close as you allowed me to, the whole time telling myself I was following orders, I was just following orders to keep myself alive, but then you,” he turned back to you suddenly, pointing an accusing finger your way as he went on, “you ruined everything by trusting me!”

 

You narrowed your eyes at him, utterly confused now, “How exactly did I ruin everything by playing into your hands?” you questioned him irritably, “Thats how people get close to one another, they trust each other to not hurt them!”

 

“You don’t understand Y/N-” he began, to which you heartily agreed.

 

“Damn right I don’t!”

 

He growled, balling his hand into a fist before thumping the glass, “Will you shut the fuck up and listen?!” he roared in frustration, “you’re missing the point because you’re not listening!”.

 

You rolled your eyes and shook your head, annoyed to the end of your patience with him. “Why should I listen?” you stood up, stalking straight towards him on the other side of the glass, staring him down as you pressed your hands against the glass, “it’s just words Francisco, just words arranged in a way to make it sound like you’re sorry when you’re not!” you locked your eyes on his then, forcing your mind into his so that your next words echoed inside his skull menacingly, “you lied to me then like you’re lying now, and I’m not going to listen to it anymore!”

 

You almost smirked at the way he flinched back, clutching the side of his head as he stared at you wide eyed. “What happened to asking permission?” he thought back at you hesitantly, “what happened to your rules, huh Y/N?”

 

“All is fair in love and war,” you answered him telepathically, “ and this most certainly isn’t love.”

 

“If you would let me explain-” he began to try to speak again, but a quick thought of pain sent his way had him crumbling in seconds.

 

“No more words,” you thought at him, “I’ll see the truth for myself,” and before he could protest you were deep inside his mind, watching his memories as if they were old movies. You saw his work for Zoom, violent as it was, watched him use his powers to beat other metas into submission, to find useful assets for Zoom’s hostile takeover. Further in you saw him getting his powers, watched the wave of light washing over him, knocking him off his feet as the particle accelerator explosion rippled across the city; you even watched him experiencing his first vision, the force of it bringing him to his knees as his brain struggled to comprehend what was happening.

 

The memories themselves jostled you around like a stormy sea, battering against your mind uncomfortably. You’d never gone this deep into someone’s mind before, it was at once exhilarating and terrifying, the feeling of having someone’s mind laid bare before you, yours to observe and destroy at your own fancy. You contemplated doing some damage, giving him a taste of the hurt he’d inflicted on you, but then you saw it, distant and glittering like a jewel in the sunlight: your smiling face in one of his memories.

 

You pounced on it immediately, reversing it until the beginning so that you could watch the whole thing. You had been sitting on your bed, sick with a cold you hadn’t wanted to get up, much less shower, but you knew Reverb would be coming, and you hadn’t wanted to look so sickly for his visit. He’d found you struggling to stand up to go to the bathroom, your head spinning from congestion as you staggered a step forward then fell back down. He’d laughed at you, kissing your forehead before gently forcing you back under your covers. “You don’t need to get cleaned up for me,” he’d said, “you’re always beautiful in my eyes, even with a snotty nose and sickly pale face,” his hand had gone to your forehead to check for a fever before tucking a lock of hair behind your ear. You had smiled, feeling better already with him by your side.

 

All of this you remembered yourself, you could recall how awful you felt when you woke up, the feel of his cool hands on your face, all of it. But here, inside Reverb’s mind, you felt yourself remembering things from his perspective. You could feel the sincerity when he said you were always beautiful, you could feel the clenching in his chest as you smiled at him. You dug deeper still now, searching for all of your memories together, one by one watching them and experiencing his feelings throughout them as if they were your own. He had been telling the truth after all it seemed, and it broke your heart even more as you felt it for yourself, first hand. Soon it became too much for you, and you broke the connection with a yelp, hot tears spilling down your face that you hadn’t realized had started.

 

“I would say something about that being an invasion of privacy,” Reverb’s haggard voice drifted to your ears as you struggled to compose yourself, “but seeing as how you wouldn’t believe my words, I honestly have to say I’m grateful you even bothered to look at those memories.”

 

You stumbled back from him, sinking against the glass as you struggled to breathe. Any feelings you’d had for him, you’d taken great pains to bury away inside yourself, but after reliving your relationship through his eyes and emotions, it was as if an artery had been cut inside you, the emotions spilling out violently with every rapid beat of your heart. “Y-you really did…you really did love me…” you gasped out, “you loved me but you lied – how could you?!”

 

“He would have killed you otherwise,” Reverb whispered, “you were a weakness, weaknesses can be exploited, and I was not about to let Zoom use you against me, you don’t deserve that.”

 

You scrubbed your palms against your eyes, wiping away the tears so you could see him clearly, “But Zoom brought me here,” you croaked, “he captured me, he put me in this box…Francisco he’s-”

 

“He’s been listening the whole time,” a familiar growling voice sounded from the shadows, making your stomach drop as Reverb looked up from the floor, Zoom looming over him menacingly. “Did you really think, I brought her here, for you?” Zoom gave a maniacal laugh, pointing one claw like gloved finger at you.

 

Reverb swallowed thickly, shaking his head as he lowered his gaze like a dog being reprimanded, “I did, but clearly I was wrong,” he replied softly, his hand curling into a fist where it braced him on the stone floor.

 

“Clearly you were,” Zoom agreed, then suddenly he was inside your cage with you, a hand around your throat lifting you several feet off the floor, “now the only thing left to do, is decide whether I should kill her, or kill you.”

 

You clawed at his hand around your neck, determined to fight to your last breath if you had to. At least now you knew Zoom’s plan, he was going to use one of you against the other just like Reverb had said, exploiting your weaknesses for each other. “You’re a monster,” you choked out, a smirk forming on your lips, “you’re a sick, twisted, animal,”

 

You couldn’t see his mouth through the mask, but you could swear he was smiling, “Observant aren’t you?” he chuckled darkly, “tell me something I don’t know.”

 

Your smirk grew into a smile, “Your plan isn’t going to work,” you informed him victoriously, you vision going fuzzy from the lack of oxygen.

 

“And what plan is that?” he asked, tilting his head sideways menacingly.

 

“The one to exploit Reverb’s weakness for me,” you laughed softly, wasting what little air you had left.

 

“And why is that?” Zoom brought you closer, you could feel the warmth of his breath just filtering through the mask.

 

“Because he has no idea who I am,” you replied, “isn’t that right Reverb?”

 

Without putting you down, Zoom turned to Reverb where he stood outside the glass, his expression was blank and his eyes were glassy, and suddenly Zoom understood what you’d done.

 

“You erased yourself from his memories,” he turned his masked gaze back to you, “how very clever of you,” he chuckled again, his grip tightening around your throat, “but you forgot to consider, what that makes you now that you’re no longer useful as leverage,”

 

You could feel yourself slipping into unconsciousness as you asked, “What does that make me then?”

 

“A liability,” you heard him growl, then with a motion too quick for any non-speedster to see, he flicked his wrist, snapping your neck in an instant.

 

Reverb blinked back to the present as he dropped your body to the floor, a confused frown on his face, “W-what’s going on?” he asked cautiously, “did…did you bring me here?”

 

Zoom glanced over his shoulder at him, blue lightening crackling around his body, “No I didn’t,” he growled, “she did.”

 

He sped off before Reverb could ask what that meant, his confused eyes casting down to you as he whispered to himself, “Who the hell is she?”.


End file.
